1ST LEG OF THE
WORLD CUP QUALIFIER SERIES
HELD AT KYALAMI EQUESTRIAN PARK
By Anne- Marie Esslinger

Beautiful autumn weather heralded the first leg of the World Cup Qualifier (WCQ) series for Southern Africa. This
show, hosted by the Kyalami Equestrian Park, was sponsored by attorneys Knowles, Hussein & Taylor, whose
generosity has been much appreciated by riders at this venue over several glamorous equestrian events.

A

ll the show jumping and major dressage competitions
were held in the refurbished Pieter Minne arena.The
surface is a sand and Clopf fibre mixture supplied
by Martin Collins South Africa, which provides
consistent jumping conditions for the enormous classes that
participated.This surface is capable of being prepared in different
ways – more loosely packed it accommodates every day usage.
When wet more and flattened it can stand up to over 100 horses
competing on it before it requires more raking and watering…a
real bonus for today’s busy events!
Riders were privileged to have their courses designed by Rob
Jansen, from the Netherlands. Rob was committed to giving a FEI
Level 2 course designers’ seminar for 6 days before the show, and
stayed on to give our riders the benefit of his expertise. Rob is a
Level 4 course designer, who has himself competed at the highest
level, and runs his own “footing” company from the Netherlands.
His fibre and sand surface can be seen in Johan Roodt’s beautiful
indoor arena near Kyalami Park.
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SPORTING HORSE Issue 19

On the course designing seminar Rob told candidates that he liked
to get horses moving forward, preferring them to incur a knock by
riding a forward distance than potentially landing on back rails by
having too many short distances.That’s exactly what he delivered!
Riders on the first day found the times allowed quite challenging,
but soon upped their game. Courses were classical and built right
up to standard with square and wide oxers and often not too
much room on the approach or the landing phases. Riders had
to keep the horses well between the hand and leg, and balanced
throughout the tracks, maintaining an energetic balanced canter in
order to secure a clear round.
The Open category was divided into 4 different height divisions.
In order to accommodate the 1,30m horses into this arena, the
timetable of the show was changed at the last minute, starting 1
day earlier. This meant that some of the out of province riders
were not able to come to the show. In addition the schedule
forced all horses that intended jumping any 1,50m classes to
be in the secure stabling area, which added to high entry fees